Kendra skated over to her.“He left.”
“He left?Where did he go?”
“Back to the house, I’m thinking.”Kendra pulled her farther away from the others.“Cait…I asked him how he felt about the baby.”
Cait went even whiter than Jason had.“What?”
“I thought you’d told him about it, and—”
“Three men can keep a secret if twa are deed,” Cait interrupted.
It was Kendra’s turn to say “What?”
“One of Mam’s old sayings.There is no such thing as a secret.Crivvens.”She drew a deep breath and blew it out, a visible puff in the cold air.“I don’t blame you—this is my fault.Was he angry?”
“I don’t know.He just…walked off.On his skates.”
“Well, then, he cannot have got far.”Pulling a key from her pocket, Cait sat right there on the ice to unlatch her own skates.“I’ll just go after him.”
Twenty-Three
Caithren
WHEN EVERYONEwas chilled to the bone, they returned to the house where Caithren was waiting.
Without Jason.
They all looked happy as they trooped in, cheeks flushed with cold and fun, chattering and teasing one another—the exact opposite of Cait’s current mood.It struck her as unfair that they felt so jolly while she felt so miserable, although she knew that made her a crabbit human being.
“Children!”Violet chided not a moment after the door was shut.“Your cloaks and skates belong in your rooms, not on the floor in here.”
The young ones scattered, the lads heading upstairs, the lasses to their temporary library-bedroom.
After hanging her own cloak on one of the pegs Ford had put on the wall for that purpose, Kendra looked to Cait.“Is Jason upstairs?”
“No.”Cait hugged herself, feeling cold even near the roaring fire.“He’s not here.I cannot imagine where he’s gone.He must be terribly upset.”
“I’m sure he was just surprised,” Kendra said in a tone clearly meant to be soothing.
But Cait didn’t feel soothed, especially when she realized that everyone—or all of the adults, at least—now knew that Jason had gone missing.And, given the way they were shooting her concerned looks, they doubtless also knew the rest: that she was carrying a bairn and had failed to tell him.
Wheesht!Was there no privacy in this family?
Well, of course there wasn’t, she chided herself.Hadn’t she said there was no such thing as a secret?A mere hour ago, no less?
“Have you looked in the cottage?”Amy asked gently.
“Aye,” Cait admitted, “which was silly, considering we’re not staying there.I’ve looked everywhere.Except the laboratory.”
“It’s locked,” Ford told her.
“Which was why I didn’t look.”
“He won’t be in there, but I’ll go look anyway,” he said and ran up the stairs.
“Your grace?”Lakefield’s houseman, Harry, stepped into the room and went to Kendra.“Your maid asked me to tell you your door has been repaired.”
“Excellent!”she said so brightly that Cait wanted to slap her.
